Wednesday, January 09, 2013

The Right Becomes Left So that Left May Become Right

(That title is a reference the the early fathers' wisecrack that God becomes man so that man might become God, or divinized.)

I have no time for a new post, but I have almost enough time to rework this one from four years back, in the hope that it contributes to our recent discussion of the different worldviews of the left and right cerebral hemispheres. (It turns out that at least half of it is new.)

It begins with a little invOcation by Meister Eckhart:

One must here come to a transformed knowing, and this unknowing must not come from ignorance; rather, from knowing one must come into an unknowing. Then, we will become knowing with divine knowing and then our unknowing will be ennobled and clothed with supernatural knowing. And here, in that we are in a state of receiving, we are more perfect than if we were active.

I think Eckhart is describing here the proper "cycle of knowledge," which proceeds from the implicit knowledge of the right brain, to the explicit knowledge of the left, and back to the implicit world of the right, now "enriched," so to speak, by the fruits of the left. It may sound unusual, but I think it's really the pattern in any form of mastery, for example, jazz.

As we've discussed in the past, jazz obviously requires an intense amount of left-brain mastery, e.g., of scales, chords, and harmony. However, in order to improvise -- which is to say, engage in spontaneous improvisation -- one must "unKnow" what is rote and familiar, and surrender to the right.

Here there is a combination of activity and passivity, since one must actively "forget" in order to adopt a position of "passivity" with regard to the implicit compositional skills of the right. It's like "trying" to dream, which cannot be done; rather, one can only surrender to the Dreamer.

It also reminds me of what Bion said about being a psychoanalyst: one must suspend memory, desire, and understanding, in order to "hear" the spontaneous productions of the unconscious mind, which is to say, the right hemisphere.

In fact, I remember my first day on the couch some 25 years ago. My analyst asked something like, "Do you know why you're doing that?" "Er, I don't know... to find a way to blame everything on my mother?" "No, it's in order to silence the left brain, so as to allow the right brain to get a word in edgewise."

Or as Bion said, so as to shed a beam of darkness on the workings of the unconscious mind (which is almost by definition in the right hemisphere).

And this is quite similar to what Joyce was up to in Finnegans Wake, i.e., destroying language in order to save it. I think he was essentially trying to imagine what a right brain language would be like, which is to say, holographic, fractal, endlessly metaphorical, timeless (or multi-temporal), tactile, and synesthetic, all at the same time(less). And despite the difficulty -- if not impossibility -- of ever fully comprehending it, I think he would insist that this type of language presents a more accurate -- or at least realistic -- map of the world, of man, and of history.

This goes to the problem of "saturation," which is when language becomes "dead" because unambiguous. When this happens, the world too becomes drained of poetry, and it so happens that there is a neurological explanation, or at least alibi.

As McGilchrist writes, "new experience of any kind -- whether it be of music, or words, or real-life objects, or imaginary constructs -- engages the right hemisphere. As soon as it starts to become familiar or routine, the right hemisphere is less engaged and eventually the 'information' becomes the concern of the left hemisphere only."

Thus, when language becomes saturated in this manner, we are rendered "half-alive," but then, not really alive at all, since our sense of "aliveness" is in the right brain.

Not to get too far afield, but at least for me, this is one of the purposes of the beer o'clock slackrament. Maybe I'm just lucky, but for me, I'm always just a beer or two away from right brain dominance. My left brain goes down easy.

In his Self and Spirit, Bolton reminds us of the orthoparadoxical idea that twoness, or dualism, is higher than oneness, or monism; or perhaps that One is intrinsically two and therefore three, the latter of which is "higher" than both, since, to put it mythsemantically, the infinite + the finite must (in a manner of speaking, of course) = more than the pure infinite alone.

Here again, this reminds me of the divisional or analytical (or prodigal!) thinking of the left, returning to the infinite mode of the right (back to the father... or mother, depending upon how one looks at it).

We could also say that love is higher than union; or, that true union is a unity in which differences are preserved and bound together by love -- which becomes, or reveals, their inner unity.

There is no question that on some level "all is one." But the question is, what kind of One? For when you say "all is one," you might just as well say "all is none." Not only is it a meaningless statement, it is unmeaningable -- no different than saying "all is all" or "one is one."

Furthermore, what is the ontological status of this entity who realizes "all is one?" As Bolton says, "Any such answer must include some proof that the self is a reality in its own right, and not just a collective name for a succession of more or less related phenomena with no integrating principle." For if the self is not in some sense real, then there is nothing it can objectively say about anything, let alone, God.

This is a critical question, because on it hinges not just the reality and the dignity of the personal self, but on the entire possibility of any intrinsic meaning at all, since meaning can only exist in reference to something else. If all is simply one, it is another way of saying that life is completely meaningless -- which some Vedantins and Buddhists come close to saying, i.e., that the world is maya (illusion) and nothing else.

Bolton writes that "misunderstandings of the self lead to misunderstandings of everything else." And it is the left-brain conception of the world that leaves us with an irreconcilable dualism, in that one side or the other of the dualism must go.

The result is "an almost exact parallel of the Cartesian conception of soul and body where neither has anything in common with the other" (Bolton). The Cartesian says, "I think, therefore I am." The Vedantin says "I am, therefore I think." But the Raccoon says, "God is, therefore I am. And that's why I can fruitfully and objectively think, to boot."

In other words, to say "I am one with God," is a kind of truism, but with important implications, for as Bolton says, "union in this context must mean what it says, and not simply the elimination of one side of the relation." Otherwise, we are simply avoiding a serious inquiry into the exceedingly strange situation of the Incarnation, both His and ours. You could almost say that the nonlocal Cosmic Right Hemisphere incarnated in a local time and place, or in an earthly, Left Hemispheric way.

As McGilchrist writes, "new experience of any kind -- whether it be of music, or words, or real-life objects, or imaginary constructs -- engages the right hemisphere. As soon as it starts to become familiar or routine, the right hemisphere is less engaged and eventually the 'information' becomes the concern of the left hemisphere only."

This is could be a reason it is easier to learn new languages and modes of thinking when one is young.

Does the right side become less accessible as we age? Or do we just get to thinking we know it all? Am I just an old dog up to my old tricks?

Mushroom,I have recently given some thought to the matter of learning language when older, because I am doing just that. It seems to me that a shift goes on in learning over the course of our life. We start with a strong ability to memorize and little if any ability to connect the dots, and then gradually move toward the opposite. I am not sure this is a left/right brain thing, perhaps more back/front?

That connect the dots thing is definitely true. I used to have a near-photographic memory, but I could not put things together nearly as well as I do now. I'd say I began to see the change in my thirties. Piaget stopped too soon, or it took me a long time to grow up.

It also reminds me of what Bion said about being a psychoanalyst: one must suspend memory, desire, and understanding, in order to "hear" the spontaneous productions of the unconscious mind, which is to say, the right hemisphere.

This is true, too, for "seeing" in general. What's the best way to find something? Forget what you're looking for, and ask yourself what you're looking at.

Piaget certainly doesn't cover it all. Even after the brain reaches its full form physically around the age of 25-30, there is a gradual change in function. Longer axons grow to connect remote parts of the brain, and distribute processing. Where the young brain lights up brightly in a few areas, the elderly brain set to the same task will show many smaller islets of activity. And that's normal brains which haven't been trained systematically. People who dedicate themselves to excellence in a particular field incur visible changes in their brains over time. The computer metaphor is somewhat limited to describe the human brain.

There is no question that on some level "all is one." But the question is, what kind of One? For when you say "all is one," you might just as well say "all is none." Not only is it a meaningless statement, it is unmeaningable -- no different than saying "all is all" or "one is one."

The natural samayas of wondrous spontaneity,absence, unity and openness,all of which are beyond any observance,all are aspects of each other.

My hidden samaya is intrinsic gnostic awarenesswhere the commitment and the observance are the sameand where the keeping and the breaking are the same,and therein are the four commitments that need no heeding,confidently observed, inviolable, from the first:the contrived commitments of the eight lower approaches,I deny, and I call that 'absence';liberated from lesser obligations, uncommitted,the media of awareness—body, speech and mind,are vastly spacious and I call that 'openness';the way of keeping an inviolable commitment,a pledge that cannot be observed,is through holistic, intrinsic gnostic awareness,that alone, and I call that 'unity';that intrinsic gnostic awareness,maintained effortlessly, doing nothing,that I call 'spontaneity'.

I, the supreme source, have no samaya commitment to keep,for in the absence of cause and condition, endeavor is redundant.I am spontaneity itself, so analysis is futile;I am timeless awareness, so knowledge is vanity;I am self-sprung, so causes and conditions are unavailing;I am undiscriminating, so renunciation and self-discipline are pointless:I am unreal and 'Absence' is my name.

Never becoming concrete, pristine awareness is never reified,and thus 'openness' is defined;all is one in pure mind, and thus 'unity' is defined;all and everything, whatever happens,as mental events in pure mindis always complete and perfect,and thus 'spontaneity' is defined.

The list looks suspiciously like common sense. The role of CEO might be attractive to a psychopath, but I doubt that many psychopaths make it to CEO. Salesman, other other hand, is the perfect role for a psychopath.

The researcher may be confusing authoritarian/father figures with psychopaths. A good old-fashioned father could be pretty dictatorial, but that does not make him a psychopath.

A psychopath is manipulating and controlling for the sake of the sense of power. He or she has no concern about how it impacts anyone else. A CEO may be ruthless but, at least prior to the last few years, was expected to produce for the stockholder "family", if nothing else.

That list strikes me as suspect. For one thing, I have plenty of first hand evidence of psychopathy in psychologists and psychiatrists. And the professions of charity worker, teacher, and creative artist are ideal hideouts for psychopathy. In fact, leftism more generally is the perfect cover for psychopaths. A leftist can literally get away with anything, up to and including genocide.

THis makes sense. I can carry on a conversation while I'm playing a jazz bass line but can't do it when I solo.I think I use my right brain to learn a tune, then internalize it to my left, but when I solo, I need to use my right brain to make construct it as I go, the same as language.I also learn tunes much faster now that I'm older but that is probably more to do with experienc than hemispheric transference.

I am excited to see you all are writing about left brain/right brain. I can't wait to read the next post written prior to this one. The best insight I got from this post was the one about new experience engaging the right hemisphere.

What About Bob?

Who's the dude that spirals down the celestial firepole on wings of slack, seizes the wheel of the cosmic bus, and abides in a bewilderness adventure of higher nondoodling? Who, haloed be his gnome, loiters on the threshold of the transdimensional doorway, looking for handouts from Petey? Who, with his doppelgägster and testy snideprick, Cousin Dupree, wields the pliers and blowtorch of fine insultainment for the ridicure of assouls? Who is the gentleman loaffeur who yoinks the sword from the stoned philosopher and shoves it in the breadbasket of metaphysical ignorance and tenure? Whose New Testavus for the Restavus blows the locked doors of the empyrean off their rusty old hinges and sheds a beam of intense darkness on the world enigma? Who is the Biggest Fakir of the Vertical Church of God Knows What, channeling the roaring torrent of 〇 into the feeble stream of cyberspace? Who is the masked pandit who lobs the first water balloon out the motel window at the annual Raccoon convention? Who is your nonlocal partner in disorganized crimethink? Shut your mouth! But I'm talkin' about bʘb! Then we can dig it!

Goround ZerO:

The Cosmic Area Rug:

The empty center is Beyond-Being. The circles are dimensions of Being. Your life is a path for the Spirit to pass from periphery to center. Thoughts and choices -- truth and virtue -- are the paving stones.

Only Error is Transmitted:

Buck Mulligan, Official Mascot

Official Sponsor of the Kosmic Kit Scouts, Laniakea Supercluster Chapter:

"No Kit Left Below"

Fuck You: War

Late last night, in search of light, I watched a ball of fire streak across the midnight sky. I watched it glow, then grow, then shrink, then sink into the silhouette of morning. As I watched it die, I said, ‘Hey, I’ve got a lot in common with that light.’ That’s right. I’m alive with the fire of my life, which streaks across my span of time and is seen by those who lift their eyes in search of light to help them though the long, dark night. --Nilsson

We see that yesterday is our birthday, today is our life, and tomorrow we are gone. So we have just one day to learn all we need to know, and that day is today. --Petey